Category: Monthly Review Press Blog

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid reviewed in International Socialism

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid reviewed in International Socialism

February 20, 2024

Joe Slovo and Ruth First were South Africans who spent their lives (and in Ruth’s case gave her life) in the struggle against apartheid. They were also members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) for most of their adult lives. They married in the late 1940s and despite a stormy relationship remained together until Ruth First was murdered in Mozambique’s capital Maputo in 1982. Their lives are worthy of celebration (and study) and Alan Wieder has written the first thorough account of their lives. The book details the struggle in South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and their life in exile in Britain, and across sub-Saharan Africa. Wieder presents the politics of this revolutionary couple with the sympathetic though critical attention they deserve.

Monthly Review Gift Subscription with Free Book!

Monthly Review Gift Subscription with Free Book!

February 20, 2024

Give the gift of Monthly Review this holiday season! For the special price of $29, give someone a 1-year subscription to Monthly Review, along with a free book. Choose from An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich, or The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism by Samir Amin.

The Ecological Rift reviewed in Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research

February 20, 2024

At the core of The Ecological Rift is an analysis of the fundamentally antagonistic relationship between capitalism and the environment. The authors explore “various radical ecologies that challenge the treadmill of capitalist accumulation, with the object of generating a new relation to the earth.” Foster et al., argue that humanity has become alienated from its natural environment. Drawing on Marx’s ecology, they argue that the separation of one’s inorganic from organic nature poses a serious threat to both the basis of life and society as a whole.

Ronnie Kasrils discusses Nelson Mandela on Democracy Now!

Ronnie Kasrils discusses Nelson Mandela on Democracy Now!

February 20, 2024

Ronnie Kasrils was a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, Minister of Intelligence in the post-apartheid government, and author of The Unlikely Secret Agent, published by Monthly Review Press. He’s interviewed on Democracy Now!, discussing his relationship with Nelson Mandela and how the ANC’s economic views have shifted.

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid reviewed in the LSE Review of Books

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid reviewed in the LSE Review of Books

February 20, 2024

It was a stormy relationship that only a bomb planted by an apartheid agent could blow up. Ruth First was a great researcher and thorn-in-the-side of the apartheid government before her assassination by letter bomb in 1982; Joe Slovo was the lawyer turned guerilla mastermind, who blew up power stations and military headquarters before becoming a minister in Mandela’s first government, and laid to rest in Soweto’s Avalon Cemetery. Together, they were two of the most famous and important of South Africa’s anti-apartheid activists, and lived the sort of lives that made for great stories and even greater myths.

Henry Giroux interviewed on Background Briefing with Ian Masters

Henry Giroux interviewed on Background Briefing with Ian Masters

February 20, 2024

Henry Giroux is the author of America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth, published this year by Monthly Review Press. He was interviewed on Background Briefing with Ian Masters, discussing his recent appearance on Bill Moyers, “zombie politics,” student activism, and more. Background Briefing is broadcast by KPFK in Los Angeles and syndicated around the United States.

Capitalist Globalization reviewed in The Progressive Populist

Capitalist Globalization reviewed in The Progressive Populist

February 20, 2024

Martin Hart-Landsberg thinks big. His book Capitalist Globalization: Consequences, Resistance, and Alternatives (Monthly Review Press, 2013) is proof of that. A world economy of, by, and for transnational corporations (TNCs) is a problem. So what? The author’s answer is clear. TNC-led production flows from the imperatives of businesses to produce goods and services at lower prices than rivals do. A theme throughout his book documents the interests of TNCs to the detriment of working majorities experiencing declines in their living standards.

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid reviewed by Counterfire

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid reviewed by Counterfire

February 20, 2024

A remarkable political biography of two activists who devoted their lives to the struggle for equality in South Africa… Given its wealth of detail, the wide range of interviews that Weider has conducted, and the letters to which he has been granted access, it deserves to remain the definitive biography of First and Slovo for a long time… This timely book should be read by all who seek to understand the remarkable couple and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa in depth.

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid reviewed by Paul Buhle for Swans Commentary

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid reviewed by Paul Buhle for Swans Commentary

February 20, 2024

This remarkable book bears the tale of two South African (white) Communists who threw their lives into the cause of overthrowing the tyrannical system so effectively supported by the U.S. and Israel (among others) until the veritable end. To say they were courageous is a vast understatement…. The telling of their story is an achievement for which author Alan Wieder deserves great credit. Writing as an oral history field worker and teacher, I conclude that the book could not have been done by someone who lacked the skill and patience of an oral historian such as Wieder. The entirety of this book has the personal touch and will reward reading and rereading.

NEW! Save Our Unions: Dispatches from A Movement in Distress by Steve Early

NEW! Save Our Unions: Dispatches from A Movement in Distress by Steve Early

February 20, 2024

Save Our Unions: Dispatches From A Movement in Distress brings together recent essays and reporting by labor journalist Steve Early. The author illuminates the challenges facing U.S. workers, whether they’re trying to democratize their union, win a strike, defend past contract gains, or bargain with management for the first time. Save Our Unions contains vivid portraits of rank-and-file heroes and heroines, both well-known and unsung. It takes readers to union conventions and funerals, strikes and picket-lines, celebrations of labor’s past and struggles to insure that unions still have a future in the 21st century. The book’s insight, analysis and advocacy make this an important contribution to the project of labor revitalization and reform.

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